RE: What's wrong with Times New Roman?; was, RE: Hey! She messed with *my* manual

["Latella, Vincent" <VINCENT -dot- LATELLA -at- saic -dot- com>]

John, 

 

Content is certainly king, but I don't think that aesthetics should be
ignored.  Even if the instructions and screenshots are correct, the
latter shouldn't be falling off pages. 

 

I wouldn't have minded at all if the person changing the document had
just made sure that images weren't falling off pages, *or* if they had
made the changes and let me know so that I could format everything
properly.  In fact, in either case, I'd have been very happy.   (In this
instance however, I found out about the change when I was talking to him
at his desk, and I saw the altered document sitting there.)

 

Regardless, I didn't say anything.  We're a tight group here, and we all
get along pretty well, so there's no sense in ruffling feathers because
of a brief moment of dissatisfaction.  Stuff happens.   

 

 

*switching gears*

 

 

Leonard, 

 

As for my friend's use of Times New Roman, all of our official
communication here utilizes sans-serif fonts (hence my moment of
dissatisfaction).  On a more personal level, I just don't like the look
of Times New Roman, and don't enjoy the fact that it's Microsoft's
default font for Word.  

 

I take it you're a fan? 

 

Regards, 
Vin

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________

From: John Posada [mailto:jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com] 
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 12:39 PM
To: Latella, Vincent
Cc: TECHWR-L Writing
Subject: Re: What's wrong with Times New Roman?; was, RE: Hey! She
messed with *my* manual

 

But Vincent...was the content improved? It seems to me that content is
"the king" and any assistance you can get to make content better should
be welcomed with open arms and gratitude. I hope you didn't give off any
vibes that would discourage further assistance in the future.

 

In fact, when I send material out for technical review, I specifically
include in the instructions that they are NOT to worry about
formatting...I can fix anything on that front in minutes.

 

	Yes.   I made the mistake of disseminating a document in Word to
our
	support team once (and only once).  The next time I saw that
document,
	one of the analysts had added screenshots and sentences with no
	attention paid to space constraints or formatting.
	
	It looked terrible; my screenshots were falling off of pages,
and there
	was *cringe* Times New Roman all over the place.  (No offense
intended
	to anyone who actually likes Times New Roman, but I can't stand
the
	stuff.)  Fortunately, I was able to stifle my dismay and I
didn't make a
	fuss at all.  I did make his changes consistent with my format,
however.


-- 
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
NYMetro STC President

Looking for the next gig.

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